Next parliament will be even-handed: Iranian deputy Majlis speaker

TEHRAN, Feb.28(MNA) -- Iran`s Deputy Majlis Speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar said the next parliament will be neither antagonistic nor subservient to the administration, but rather it will support proper implementation of the law by the administration and will disapprove of anything incompatible with the law. Bahonar, who is campaigning for parliament on the list of the United Front of Principlists in the Tehran constituency, made the remarks on Saturday. Principlist MPs concede they have been unable to force the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to implement certain bills ratified by the parliament, such as the bill calling for the allocation of two billion dollars for metro projects in Tehran and other big cities. Asked about the performance of the Guardian Council in vetting parliamentary candidates, Bahonar said that once it was said that the council usually disqualifies reformists and approve principlists, but this time the council acted differently and nobody can criticize the oversight body. “We see no criticism of the Guardian Council’s performance in reformist or principlist media outlets,” he added. Bahonar said this time nobody can claim that the Guardian Council’s approach in disqualifying certain parliamentary candidates was “politically motivated” because both staunch supporters and opponents of the government have been given a chance to run for seats in parliament. However, the six-term lawmaker said he wished that the Guardian Council would have acted more openhandedly and would have approved more candidates. The Guardian Council has barred 30 sitting MPs from running for reelection. Five of them were disqualified due to their links to the $2.6 billion financial fraud case. Bahonar said, “I am convinced that it would not be expedient for the system that they (the five MPs) should enter the Majlis. But about the rest I am not convinced.” He said he was “very sorry” about the disqualification of some lawmakers like Second Deputy Majlis Speaker Shahabodin Sadr, whom he described as “dignified characters” and expressed hope that the “misunderstanding” about Sadr would be cleared up. On allegations by certain extremists that he was one of the people who remained “silent” about the seditious movement that arose following the 2009 presidential election, the veteran lawmaker said he and four other people met with Mir-Hossein Mousavi to try to convince him to accept the results of the presidential election. “I asked him to return to the system… and (told him that) if you want to be an opposition, it is better to be an opposition within the system.” He went on to say that that now some people ask why he was initially “silent” about the post-election unrest and say, “Therefore you were among those who remained silent about fitna (sedition).” He added, “If this is the meaning of saketin fitna (those who were allegedly silent about sedition), yes I am among the saketin (the silent ones).” He said some argue that the sedition was planned six months before the election and the leaders of sedition wanted to stage a “velvet revolution”. He added that if this claim is true, they should criticize the Guardian Council and ask why it approved the qualifications of the “leaders of the sedition who had cooperation with the enemies of the system.” After Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei made a clear and transparent statement about the seditious movement, the Majlis also issued a statement signed by 250 lawmakers, he stated. If the extremists had been given a free hand to manipulate the seditious movement, reformist MPs might have resigned and other bitter events might have followed, he added.